FIFA announced its finalists for the FIFA Ballon d’Or and for the FIFA World Coach of the Year. While no USMNT players made the Ballon d’Or list (how did Alan Gordon not get nominated?!), Jurgen Klinsmann is one of the 10 finalists for the Coach of the Year award.

FIFA also plans to show off its new logo for the 2018 World Cup later today.

It looks like the USMNT might play Switzerland in a friendly in Zurich in March.

Congrats to the US Women’s National Team for winning the CONCACAF Women’s Championship and clinching a spot in next summer’s World Cup. Since 1990, the US is one of three countries to qualify for every men’s and women’s World Cup (also Germany and Brazil).

Michael Bradley is going to have surgery this week to correct a lingering nerve issue in his foot. This is an injury that has been bugging him for most of the season. Jeff Carlisle asked him if it was an issue prior to the World Cup, which he said no, but I guess it got worse as the season wore on.

Jake Keegan went 90 minutes yesterday in Galway FC’s 2-1 win over UCD in the first leg of the Irish Premier Division promotion/relegation playoffs. Galway FC scored two late goals to steal the road win and now host UCD on Friday for a chance at promotion.

After scoring 12 goals in 14 games with the U-23 team, Jann George finally saw some first team action with Greuther Furth’s senior team in their 5-2 loss to FSV Frankfurt.

We had some goals this weekend. Matt Taylor scored twice in Saarbrücken’s 4-1 win over Pirmasens. Christian King scored twice in Ararat’s 3-2 loss to Ulisses in Armenian Premier League action. Jerome Kiesewetter scored his second goal of the season on Saturday in Stuttgart II’s 1-0 win over Unterhaching. And over Tigres’ last two games, we have had goals by Jose Torres and Herculez Gomez.

I saw a Clint Dempsey rumor (loan deal back to the Premier League) has been circulating the interwebs in the last 48 hours, but it all came from a short “story” from the Daily Mirror with no quotes (except for an out of context quote from Klinsmann). Come on people, I thought we were better than that.

And finally, no matter what happens with the rest of his career, Stuart Holden is still awesome.

The US is now unbeaten in its last 19 home games after Tuesday’s draw to Honduras. Here are the highlights and here are some photos. And I found this stat to be interesting from Matthew Doyle about Michael Bradley playing behind two true forwards.

While Brad Guzan and Nick Rimando seem to have the #1/#2 spots locked up over the next year, Will took a look at the depth behind them and gave some other options aside from Bill Hamid and Sean Johnson. He also went USMNT hipster on us and gave us some other options at the U-23 level.

While Joe Gyau is out until January with his meniscus injury, Schwatzgelb.com takes a look closer at Gyau’s career.

Julian Green and Fabian Johnson are both back at their respective German clubs and training again despite their recent injuries.

The FA of Ireland officially announced the rumored November 18 friendly yesterday. Still no official word from US Soccer.

Some details of the 2015 Gold Cup came out over the weekend. It will feature 12 teams in 10 different US cities between July 7-26. The 10 cities will be selected in “4Q 2014″. And a third place match has been added this year.

Speaking of the Gold Cup, new contributor John D. Halloran took a look at some possibilities of the 2015 US roster last Friday.

We had a few guys in action on Monday. Pablo Punyed scored a game-winning goal from a free kick in the 90th minute to give Stjarnan the 2-1 victory in Iceland (highlights). And Zak Whitbread was able to get through a game without an injury and he assisted on a goal in Derby County’s 2-0 win in League Cup action (highlights).

I finally had some time this weekend so I was able to write up The OT Report. So check that out to see how some of your favorite players did this past weekend across Europe. Even though the big leagues haven’t started yet, there were a ton of guys in action over the weekend.

One player who saw the field this weekend in a reserve game was Freddy Adu. He started for FK Jagodina’s reserve team in a 1-0 loss in Serbia. And here is photographic proof that he still exists.

Michael Orozco scored a goal this weekend. But it was for the other team (highlights).

Junior Flores played this weekend for Borussia Dortmund’s U-19 team in a 4-0 win over Wuppertaler SV. I saw some online chatter that he assisted on three goals. I have no clue if that is true or not, but here are some highlights from the game, which has two of the goals. One came from a free kick and I can’t tell if he assisted on the other or not.

Here is a photo of Alejandro Bedoya from Nantes’ 1-0 win over Lens. And I think this is a photo of Bedoya leading the team in the “I Believe” chant, which I have seen him do before for Nantes after wins.

Brad Guzan and Aston Villa took on Parma over the weekend in a friendly and here is an action shot of Guzan making a save.

Jermaine Jones is still without a home and it looks like the New England Revolution are interested in working out a deal. And while Sacha Kljestan didn’t end up in Los Angeles, it looks like FC Dallas were trying to get the midfielder to Frisco as well.

As I promised last week, we are starting to add new content to the site aside from links and RJ DeMello started us off last week with an interview with Joe Gyau. There should also be something else USMNT-centric from another new contributor today.

Of course the weekend that I am gone has 12 goals scored by various Americans throughout Europe, so here are a bunch of GIFs of about half of those goals. The goal tracker has also been updated with all the goals.

The US U-23 and U-17 teams have been busy lately. The U-23 team defeated the Bahamas national team 5-1 (highlights). And the U-17 team are in the semifinals of a tournament in Mexico after winning their first four games (highlights).

In Europa League action yesterday, Pablo Punyed and Stjarnan are advancing to the playoff round, while Mix Diskerud/Rosenborg, Ethan Horvath/Molde and Sean Reynolds/FH have all been eliminated.

Here are some highlights of Ethan Horvath in action between the sticks for Molde II in a recent game.

Finally back inside my OT mansion (apartment) in the humidity-free Los Angeles and was able to catch up on the internet and find some links for you guys from the last two weeks.

Thanks once again to RJ for keeping the site going while I was gone. Feel free to join him in those World Cup prediction posts.

And thanks to David for keeping me up to date on the goals from guys in Sweden, Finland and Iceland while I was gone. Because of him, I was able to update the goal tracker last night. Andrew Stadler has been going off in Sweden lately, including five goals in his last four games.

Yahoo Sports’ Martin Rogers wrote some words on how the USMNT is becoming a fan favorite in Brazil. From my experience of being down there, the locals did enjoy the US fans and were getting into the “I Believe” chant.

Terrence Boyd is getting interest from Red Bull Leipzig, Sporting CP and Wigan Athletic according to Greg Seltzer. While Boyd waits on his future, he scored twice in a 20-0 win in a friendly for Rapid Vienna over the weekend.

It also looks like Matt Besler has been linked to various teams across Europe, but I could see him staying in MLS.

Joe Gyau is moving from Hoffenheim and will be joining Junior Flores at Borussia Dortmund according to Steven Goff (and Gyau was basically tweeting out all the thanks on Twitter last night). That is a pretty big move for the speedy 21-year-old.

Andrew Wooten signed a three-year deal with German 2. Bundesliga side Sandhausen. Wooten played with Sandhausen in 2012-13 while on loan from Kaiserslautern.

Zak Whitbread has signed with Derby County on a one-year deal. Whitbread appeared in four league games for the Rams last season after being sent out on loan by Leicester City.

Herculez Gomez scored a goal in a preseason game for Tigres last week.

The last we heard from Oguchi Onyewu, he was looking at a couple teams in England. As for last week, he was back in Washington training with DC United. No clue if this is a trial or just him training for a couple days with his hometown team.

In case you have been kidnapped Taken-style over the last 48 hours, the US kicked off the Send-Off Series with a 2-0 win over Azerbaijan on Tuesday. Here are some highlights and some photos from the game. Here is also a short video on the game and Chris Wondolowski from the San Jose Earthquakes Youtube channel. Clint Dempsey was a late scratch with a groin issue, but it is not serious and he will only miss one or two days.

This Landon Donovan shirt is awesome. And this song might be the only country song I like. Jimmy Conrad/KICKTV have their latest Group G video up and this time Jimmy is in Ghana. I want to have a beer with Jimmy at some point in my life.

As I posted yesterday, reports out of England have Tim Ream agreeing to a new three-year deal with Bolton.